UW urged to cancel biolab plan

Group representing 20 neighborhoods sends letter to Emmert

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, April 8, 2005

University of Washington's neighbors have united to fight a proposal to build a high-security, regional biomedical lab on the Seattle campus.

Citing concerns about safety and government secrecy, a group representing more than 20 neighborhood organizations sent a letter to UW President Mark Emmert yesterday opposing the anti-terrorism research facility.

Community councils and groups from the University District, Wedgwood, View Ridge, Roosevelt, Laurelhurst, Montlake and Ravenna-Bryant joined the appeal to Emmert to withdraw the university's $25 million grant request pending with the National Institutes of Health.

"The security of such a facility raises concerns," states the letter from the Northeast District Council. "The proposed location is adjacent to three public streets and is readily accessible to the public.

"The UW has already experienced ecoterrorist attacks, and this facility would present both a high-profile and a high-risk target."

In January, revelations that the university had quietly applied to the NIH for money to build the 57,000-square-foot lab near Portage Bay shocked and angered faculty members and residents.

The Seattle facility would be part of a planned network of regional biodefense labs that is studying anthrax, the plague and other deadly pathogens, as well as emerging infectious diseases, such as avian flu and SARS.

Eleven of those so-called Level 3 labs are already in place, but the one proposed for the UW would be the first on the West Coast.

University officials have apologized for failing to disclose their plans sooner, and have since held public forums. But neighborhood groups are still concerned that accidents at the proposed lab might be hushed up.

"Research on select agents is sometimes classified or proprietary," the council's letter states. "There will likely be little or no public notification in the event of thefts or accidents."

"That's not the kind of neighbor I want to have," she said, "and I'm afraid that's the kind of neighbor this biolab would be."

"My community council has been discussing it since January," said Jeannie Hale, president of the Laurelhurst Community Club. "We've done research and we just don't think a biolab should be sited in a highly congested area. We just don't think it's safe."

The letter also raises the possibility of a terrorist attack on the facility.

The UW's proposed facility would cost $64 million, with the rest of the money (outside the $25 million grant) to be raised privately. If that happens this year, the lab -- actually a cluster of six -- could be operational by 2009.

UW spokesman Norm Arkans stressed yesterday that Emmert has not decided whether to build the lab. The university will not know if NIH has approved the plans until this summer, he said.

Asked about the neighborhood groups' request to abandon the project, Arkans said the input will be "part of what the president will weigh when he gets all of the information in, and decides which direction the university needs to go."

"I continue to believe there is no risk to the general public," said John Coulter, UW's associate vice president for medical affairs. "The risk of contracting an infectious disease from anywhere in the world, such as the avian flu, is increasing -- not decreasing. For the good of the public, I still think this is a good thing to do."

Community opposition similar to Seattle's may have helped kill a proposal in 2003 to build a top-security Level 4 biolab at the University of California-Davis.